Renegade by Cambria Hebert Page B

you never quite knew.
     
    “Can we talk?” I asked, keeping my voice low.
     
    Kimber jumped a little and then poked her head around her open locker door to look at me. “About what?”
     
    I adjusted my backpack strap on my shoulder and looked away. “Look, if I tell you something, can we keep it between us?”
     
    This got her attention and she smiled. “Oohhh, a secret.” She capped some kind of makeup in her hand and tossed it into her locker, grabbed her water, and shut the door. “Tell me.”
     
    “I’m serious, Kimber. Not a word.”
     
    She crossed her arms and leaned her shoulder against the wall of lockers. She was enjoying my discomfort. “Who else knows about this?”
     
    I gritted my teeth. “No one.”
     
    Her eyes lit up. “Not even Heven?”
     
    “Forget it,” I said and started to walk away.
     
    She caught the sleeve of my T-shirt and pulled me back. “Fine.” She sighed. “I won’t tell anyone. Swear.” She held out her pinky finger and I stared down at it.
     
    “What’s that?”
     
    She wrinkled her nose. “It’s a pinky swear.” She grabbed my hand and hooked her pinky around mine and shook. “Now it’s sacred.”
     
    I didn’t think her touching her pinky with mine made anything sacred, but if that kept her mouth shut I wasn’t going to argue. “You said you saw a skeleton hand in the lake.”
     
    Her eyes narrowed. “I’m not crazy,”
     
    Had she heard that rumor around the school, too? “I know that. You’re right. It was Andi’s hand.”
     
    She drew back. “Are you playing games with me?” she hissed.
     
    “No. Listen.” I stepped closer. “China—the hellhound that was trying to kill Heven?” When she nodded, I continued. “She was at your party. She killed Andi.”
     
    “What?” Kimber shrieked. Down the hall someone looked our way.
     
    “Shhh!”
     
    “Sorry,” she mouthed and motioned for me to go on.
     
    “She did it because she looked like Heven, and China wanted me to think it was her.”
     
    “That’s sick.”
     
    “I didn’t know what to do. Heven didn’t know about me then. No one knew, and if the cops came and started asking questions…”
     
    “You dumped her body in the lake, didn’t you?” She rolled her eyes and sighed.
     
    “I didn’t dump it. I placed it there. Gently.”
     
    Kimber snorted. “Whatever helps you sleep at night.”
     
    “That’s the thing. It doesn’t. I feel guilty. I went back there to, you know, bring her body back up so it could be found, but it was nothing but bones.”
     
    Kimber nodded like she understood.
     
    “I want her family and Sean to stop worrying. I want them to be able to get on with their lives.”
     
    “What does this have to do with me?”
     
    “I was thinking maybe you could use your magic to bring up the body, so it’s all still together and can be found.”
     
    Her mouth flattened. “I don’t have my power anymore.”
     
    “No. But you might someday. Maybe then?”
     
    I saw refusal come into her eyes, but then it disappeared and she nodded. “Yeah, okay. But I make no promises on that hand. Who knows where it is now?”
     
    “Thanks.” I felt better just knowing Andi might get some peace.
     
    Kimber shook her head. “What else have you done that we don’t know about?”
     
    I stared at her, silent.
     
    She sighed dramatically. “Fine. Don’t tell me.”
     
    “Look, I don’t want anyone to know. Not Heven, not anyone. The less people that know the better. I don’t want Heven implicated in case someone ties the body to me. I want everyone to be able to deny any knowledge.”
     
    “Except for me.”
     
    “Something tells me you can handle it.”
     
    That made her look smug. I wanted to laugh because it hadn’t really been a compliment.
     
    “Do you really think I’ll get my powers back?”
     
    “You miss them?” When she nodded, I said, “They didn’t seem that strong down in hell.”
     
    “That’s because I was in